He was in a tough situation. We need to remember the extent of right wing vitriol and hate. Anyone who speaks out against Trump gets death threats. Their concerts would have had protestors outside. Continuing the tour could have been a safety risk for their fans. I’m not saying cancelling everything was the right move, but it’s not as simple as “dick riding for Donald Trump.”
I went through an scientology phase (academic interest, not a follower) and have seen a ton of documentaries on the topic. This one is by far the best, and really just a well made documentary in general.
Wild Wild Country
A bit overlong (typical for Netflix), but it has that irresistible “Surely this won’t get any crazier” thing going for it. It’s also a bit unique among cult documentaries in that the cult leader (technically second in command I think, but the de facto leader for a time) is interviewed and is remarkably candid about everything.
So I have some experience with this and have a few things I want to tell you:
Consider a dedicated sleep study. If you have sleep apnea, medication will not fix your problem and some medications may actually make it worse.
Xanax (an anxiety medication) and Ambien (a sleep medication) are very similar drugs with respect to their mechanism of action. Xanax binds to a specific group of receptors to cause anxiolytic effects and happens to also make you sleepy. Ambien binds to a subset of those same receptors to make you sleepy, but don’t have the strong anxiety reducing effect. If Xanax works for you, Ambien should theoretically have a similar effect. In practice, it doesn’t tend to work as well because anxiety can keep you awake. If that has been your experience with Ambien, think about taking some steps to address anxiety even if you don’t think it’s that bad. Yoga, counseling, meditation, whatever. There are also guided breathing audio sessions designed to put you to sleep in apps like Fitbit and calm that may be helpful.
You can also supplement a prescription sleep aid with something non prescription, which is what I do. I take Ambien, and to keep my dose low I supplement with melatonin, tryptophan, and valerian root when I need an extra kick into sleepiness. I’ve heard CBD is also quite effective for this. Magnesium reportedly also helps with restful sleep, but get a sleep formulation because magnesium in the wrong form causes diarrhea.
Don’t underestimate sleep hygiene. For a long time I had the attitude of “I have real sleep problems, basic stuff like cutting back caffeine is not going to help.” The thing is, when taken together, that kind of stuff actually can help tremendously. I scheduled a month where I went hardcore on sleep hygiene. Strict caffeine limits, no late caffeine or exercise, don’t do anything on your bed but sleep and sex, wake up at the same early time every day even when you don’t have to, limit screens before, bed… I mean ALL of it. I found that it actually really helped. In combination with medication it might be a life saver. Might be worth doing your own experiment with it.
Good luck!
Sleigh Bells - Treats
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Hooray For Earth - True Loves
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
Dayglow - Fuzzybrain
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
This is a weird one, but I’m going to say Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team. It has the vibe of kids playing on a playground in the 80s and 90s. Like, double Dutch jump rope, neon colors, excited chatter… Pure, innocent joy. It isn’t actually about any of those things, but the way the band uses samples, lots of trumpet (the most triumphant instrument), and the sung/rapped/chanted/cheered vocals really make it feel like that. It’s not experimental though, these are catchy, banger pop songs. One of my favorite albums of all time.
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Cursive - The Ugly Organ
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
The screen technology is the biggest differentiator. Cheap sets use LCD. Some will have local dimming zones where parts of the backlight dim in order to increase contrast a bit, but there is light bleed which I find distracting
There’s a newer tech called mini LED which is basically an LCD with an array of much smaller led backlights behind it than a cheaper set. This allows for much more precise local dimming of pixels, creating a picture with a better contrast ratio and much less light bleed.
The more expensive stuff is OLED which is a different technology entirely. Its main benefit is that each pixel is lit independently without the need for backlighting which provides VERY deep blacks (the pixels are off), often described as a near infinite contrast ratio, with no light bleed. The main drawbacks are low peak brightness and the possibility of burn in, though both are getting better with time.
The newest and priciest is micro LED, which uses self illuminating LEDs as pixels so it has the same contrast advantages as OLED but it has much higher peak brightness and no burn in. This is extremely expensive and not widely available yet, but is being pitched as replacing OLED eventually.
That is not what “all cause mortality” means.